Policy information sourced from the Islington Development Management Policies
DM4.1 Maintaining and promoting small and independent shops
The council views the retention of small and independent shops as a baseline and places great weight on the need to retain any shops which currently or potentially could be utilised by small and independent retailers. In order to encourage new provision of small and independent shop units, the council will seek to secure small shop units (generally considered to be units of around 80m2 gross internal floorspace or less) suitable for small and independent retailers throughout the borough, by:
- requiring proposals for new retail development which incorporate 2,500m2 gross internal floorspace or more in the A Use Classes to incorporate small shop premises, equivalent to at least 10% of the total amount of proposed retail floorspace, and encouraging their occupation by independent retailers, particularly for essential services. Retail development below this threshold must also provide a good supply of smaller units;
- requiring proposals for the redevelopment of small shop units to incorporate adequate reprovision of small units to compensate for any loss, particularly for essential services;
- requiring proposals for major housing developments to incorporate small shop units where there is no accessible provision of essential daily goods available within a short walking distance (within 300m); and
- where appropriate, attaching conditions to permissions for small shop units, requiring planning permission to be sought for the future amalgamation of units into larger premises.
The council will prevent the amalgamation of individual shop units incorporating A Use Classes where the intensification of use would have material impacts which would:
- detrimentally affect the character of the local area, and/or
- cause unacceptable adverse impacts on the local environment and/or amenity
For more information please see the Islington Development Management Policies